Directors’ corner

Climate and life on Earth are intertwined. Since their emergence, lifeforms have evolved within Earth’s atmosphere, creating conditions characterised by the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide to which plants and animals are now adapted. Rapid climate change sets new challenging constraints for the organisms of the biosphere – not least for humans impacted by extreme weather events, like the decreased availability of water or sea level rise. It is increasingly evident that links between regional climate change, biodiversity loss, and distortions to the hydrological cycle are central for human wellbe-ing. Public awareness of anthropogenic impacts on climate change is also ris-ing. Risks associated with global environmental changes associated with, e.g., ecosystem collapse or large-scale ocean circulation changes, are frequently in public discussion. Because uncertainties in our ability to detect, quantify, and project these changes are still great, new fundamental knowledge of the workings of the Earth system is still relevant and timely.
During the past academic year, researchers at the Bolin Centre have studied the fundamental processes of the Earth system, including the atmosphere, the biosphere, the cycling of water and carbon, and their interactions with human activities. Research highlights chosen by Bolin Centre Research Theme (RT) leaders include studies investigating the ways humans and livestock modify land and interact with local ecosystems and hydrology, with boundary conditions provided by the changing regional and glob-al climate.

Concrete impacts of elevated temperatures on bumblebees and their interactions with plants have been studied in a laboratory setting, providing important data on the mechanisms through which anthro-pogenic climate change might influence insect populations. Bolin research-ers have also played a leading role in, e.g., setting improved constraints on the present carbon budget, reconstructing past CO2 concentrations, and evaluating the ability for present Earth System Models (ESMs) to represent feedback associated with forests, biogenic hydrocarbons, aero-sols, clouds, and climate (see p.16). Past events of abrupt changes coupling temperature, hydrological cycles, and large-scale circulation have been identi-fied and studied both observationally and through numerical modelling, improving our ability to understand and project such potential future changes and their consequences. The Bert Bolin Climate Lecturer 2024, Pro-fessor Ricarda Winkelmann, gave us insight into another crucial feedback –the one between ice, atmosphere, ocean, and solid earth on Greenland and Antarctica. She highlights that if tipping points and thresholds are crossed here, it could trigger irreversible consequences, calling for stronger intergen-erational climate responsibility.

Much of the centre’s research is performed by Early Career Researchers (ECRs) – PhD students, postdocs, and early-stage academics – who are also among the most loyal visitors of Bolin Days. In our strategic plan we aim to “build a foundation for future employment opportunities for ECRs through networking and exposure to diverse career pathways” and “offer attractive possibilities for international researchers to visit our research environment.” In a research landscape that often drives specialisation, the Bolin Centre ena-bles development as broadly knowledgeable climate scientists. This breadth was especially evident during Bolin Days 2024, which featured excellent talks from our first cohort of postdoctoral fellows. New initiatives supporting the ECR community will follow in the coming year, led by the new Bolin ECR Coun-cil, to whom we extend our thanks.

One challenge of an academic career is balancing pressure to publish with research quality. This is especially pressing for ECRs navigating faculty and proposal evaluations. An overemphasis on quantity, metrics, and publishing revenues has resulted in negative impacts: the fragmentation of knowledge; an overwhelming volume of information; and even fraudulent studies, pla-giarism, and paper mills. Such problems threaten the foundations of science, the attractiveness of research careers, and public trust in peer review. Publish-ing practices are key to retaining this trust and enhancing research quality. Evaluation must emphasise quality over quantity, and researcher-led journals should be promoted over commercially driven ones. Therefore, beginning in 2025, the Bolin Centre is proud to relaunch the scientific journal Tellus. Found-ed by Carl-Gustaf Rossby in 1948, Tellus is likely the world’s first journal fo-cused on the Earth’s system.